Trump Is Freezing Money for Clean Energy. Republican States Have the Most to Lose.

February 10, 2025

About 80 percent of manufacturing investments spurred by a Biden-era climate law have flowed to Republican districts. Efforts to stop federal payments are already causing pain.

In less than three weeks, President Trump has thrown the U.S. clean energy industry into chaos, with much of the economic damage hitting Republican states and districts.

In a quest to eliminate any funding linked to climate change, the Trump administration has frozen federal grants for everything from battery factories to electric school buses and issued executive orders that have halted federal approvals for wind and solar projects.

Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress are also working to repeal the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which is projected to pour hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade into low-carbon energy technologies through tax credits, loans and grants.

So far, Republican-voting communities have benefited the most from that law. In the nearly three years since it was passed, private companies chasing the law’s tax breaks have announced plans to spend $165.8 billion to build factories that make solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and more, according to new data from Atlas Public Policy, a research firm. Roughly 80 percent of those investments are in Republican congressional districts, where they are creating a once-in-a-generation manufacturing boom.

The Inflation Reduction Act, along with a separate 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, also provided tens of billions of dollars in grants that have since been awarded by the federal government to private companies, states and nonprofit organizations. These are legally binding obligations that have allowed companies to make investments, sign leases and hire workers, with the expectation that they would be reimbursed by the government.

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